


I will always hold you close (I will learn to let you go)

by Atalto



Series: The Story of Us (Pebble's Shance Fluff Week fics) [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Brief description of injury, Families of Choice, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Shance Fluff Week 2017, blood mention, definatly doesn't start v fluffy, i've never written this kind of stuff before can you tell, shiro gets injured
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 00:32:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,652
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11093169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Atalto/pseuds/Atalto
Summary: After the Lions touched down, Hunk thought he was the first out, quickly followed by Pidge, passing her a compliment and a friendly tap on the arm. It has been a good fight, laid-back and quick; a renegade Galra fleet thought they could ambush the Castle, quickly learned not to underestimate the Paladins reaction speeds, and were destroyed before they could do any permanent damage. Sure, the Lions had taken a few hits defending engines, but it wasn't anything serious, right?A mission ends badly for Shiro, and the duo is forced to reevaluate their protectiveness of each other.~Written for Shance Fluff Week day 3: home/family





	I will always hold you close (I will learn to let you go)

**Author's Note:**

> Quick thing: i'm in no way happy with this one. It got way too angsty for my liking and yeah, it ends happily, but this is a f l u f f week, damnit Pebble.
> 
> So yeah, warnings for blood mention, Shiro suffers a somewhat nasty head injury.
> 
> But also paladin bonding! Be thankful for small mercies. Title from Light by Sleeping at Last (such a shance anthem!)
> 
> Enjoy!

After the Lions touched down, Hunk thought he was the first out, quickly followed by Pidge, passing her a compliment and a friendly tap on the arm. It has been a good fight, laid-back and quick; a renegade Galra fleet thought they could ambush the Castle, quickly learned not to underestimate the Paladins reaction speeds, and were destroyed before they could do any permanent damage. Sure, the Lions had taken a few hits defending engines, but it wasn't anything serious, right?

Well, that's what he had thought before Black's airlock slid open and Lance had run out with the Black Paladin on his back, seemingly unresponsive.

"Everybody out of my godamn way! Now!"

Hunk hadn't seen Lance so panicked. Ever. In their sixteen years of friendship, he hadn't seen anything that compared to Lance's shouting as he pushed Pidge to one side and stormed through the hanger with Shiro lamely over his shoulder like a rag doll despite his weight being so much more than Lance's.

It would have been comical if Shiro wasn't unconscious and bleeding.

On the other side of the hanger, Keith turned the corner from Red's connection, breathing ragged. "What just happened?" He called; Red's hangar was closest to Black's, there was no doubt he'd just witnessed the same thing as Hunk.  
"I- I don't know." Hunk stammered. "Black only took a light hit, right? Shiro said he was fine."  
Keith looked pained and took off in pursuit.  
"Keith?"  
"Of course he would say he's fine, he's Shiro!"

* * *

 

They finally found Lance in the med-bay in a frenzy, trying to get Shiro into a healing pod without much success. Black armour was strewn across the floor, a chest plate here, a blood-spattered helmet there. From where they were stood, Shiro's injury was evident. His white tuft was stuck together in brick coloured clumps, some blood trickling down his face and over the bridge of his nose.

Keith darted forward, lifting Shiro off Lance's hands as Hunk pulled Lance backwards, arms locking Lance's behind his back as he struggled in his grip. "Pidge, a bit of help here?" Hunk grunted as Lance's head missed his chin by an inch. Pidge nodded and pulled out her Bayard, giving Lance the weakest shock the taser could offer. Lance went still in Hunk's arms, and Keith wrestled Shiro into the healing pod.

In the struggle, Allura and Coran had arrived and ran over to the circle of Paladins who were helping lie a semi-lucid Lance out on the floor.  
"Get him to drink some of this." Coran offered, holding a green-coloured water pouch out to Pidge who stabbed the top with a straw and put it to his mouth. "It's an Altean energy drink, it should wake him up."  
"Then we can learn what this is all about." Allura huffed.

It took a few seconds for the drink to take effect, the group watching with baited breath as Lance blinked groggily and looked up at Keith. "Where's..." he trailed off, head slinging to one side. Keith reached out and tilted it back. "Where's who? Lance?"  
"Where's Kashi-Um, Shiro? He, ugh," he swallowed thinkly, "he took a shot for me, he's hurt. Where is he?"  
Coran and Allura shared a look, the other Paladins looking on in confusion.  
"Lance, what do you mean? You're talking bullshit!" Pidge shifted on the spot.  
Lance attempted to push himself up, but the Yellow Paladins arms never left his back. "One of the ships, they were going to hit Blue." Lance breathed deeply, the panic growing in his eyes again. "But Black, but _Shiro_ , jumped in the way. He said he was okay but I landed and there wasn't any reply on the comms, and Black had her airlock open so I ran in to see if he was okay and he's just sat there." He slowed right down suddenly, accelerando coming to halt at the end of the bar. "He took a hit for me, and I saw blood, and I panicked." His eyes lifted away from the floor. "Where is he?"  
Allura lay a hand gently on his forehead, frowned, and pulled it away. "He's healing, don't worry."  
Pidge smiled reassuringly. "Yeah, you managed to weight-run a man double your body mass across a hanger and halfway up a castle. It was..." she hesitated, "kinda scary."  
Hunk hummed in agreement. "You looked like a madman, dude."  
"Sorry man, thanks for sorting me out." He looked around at the others. "Thank you guys, seriously."  
Keith punched his arm lightly before helping him up onto his knees beside Hunk. "We're practically family now Lance, what did you expect us to do? Leave you to it?"  
"We are?"  
"Yeah bro', like a space family!" Everyone looked up at Hunk, faces a mixture of humour and relief at the change of conversation. "You and Shiro are the mom and dad, of course."

Lance flushed a deep red, and Allura giggled at what Hunk had unknowingly just admitted.

"W-what?"  
"Isn't it obvious?" Hunk asked incredulously. "Shiro's the cool space dad, who comes up with the ideas and is so stressed he's relaxed so he kinda' lets us do what we want. You're _definitely_ the space mom. Constantly checking on us, making sure we're sleeping and eating and stuff."  
A chuckle went around the group.  
" _And_ you and Shiro have been pretty couple-y recently-"  
"Alright Paladins, I think that's enough for one Solar quintent!" Coran butted in, and Lance had never been more thankful for the older Altean. "You're all probably exhausted, you humans like your sleep, so off to bed with you all!" He shooed them off towards the door once they were all stood, Hunk making sure Lance was steady before retracting his hands.

"Coran? Can I stay?" Lance finally asked. "I wanna' be there when Shiro wakes up. I need to apologise."  
Coran thought for a moment, but Allura spoke up before he could say anything. "Of course, Lance. I'm too awake to sleep right now, so I shall stay with you. Coran?" She turned with a smile.  
"I guess I can't really-"  
"Thank you Coran!" She said to his slightly shocked face.  
Pidge yawned. "I'm going, I've got Project Gunther to work on." She tapped Lance's shoulder. "Say hi to Space Dad for me."  
"I'm going as well. Night Lance!" Hunk cheered before following Pidge out.  
Keith stepped forwards, and next thing Lance knew, he was being awkwardly hugged round the middle. "Don't scare us like that again, okay?" He drew back and offered a crooked smile. "Night Space mom."

Lance could do little but wave pathetically as the other Paladins left the room, leaving Allura to drag him over to a seat in the walls of the room.

* * *

 

They'd sat there for what left like hours, talking about anything that came to mind; Allura had even tried to teach him some traditional Altean dances at one point, and what Lance had thought was going to be ballroom turned out to be a cross between a samba and a contemporary street dance.  
"Princess?" Lance asked quietly. "Not to sound rude or anything, like, I love your company, and your dancing is _incredible-_ "  
"Your point?"  
"Why did you offer to stay?"  
Allura shifted in her seat, folding her hands in her lap. "It didn't seem right to leave you on your own."  
She laughed under her breath at Lance's confused expression. "You were in, as Hunk would say, a bit of a state. I didn't want to leave you on your own as you were, and, surprisingly, you make lovely company when you're not trying to flirt with me."  
"Sorry." He apologised, looking slightly awkward. Allura shook her head lightly in forgiveness.  
"You know, I think Shiro has been incredibly good for you." She added, marvelling at Lance's increasingly embarrassed expression.  
"Did Coran tell you?"  
"He isn't to blame here, don't worry." She reassured. "However, you do need to pick more hidden cuddling places that the observatory deck next time."  
Lance buried his burning face in his hands. "You don't mind?"  
"Not at all, in fact several of the Paladins of old were in romantic relationships with each other. It helped with forming Voltron in the long run."  
Lance breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, keeping from their fellow Paladins _definitely_ didn't."

His face fell back into his hands, and he was unbelievably grateful when Allura stood and looked towards Shiro's healing pod. "It looks like he'll be out soon." She shook his shoulder lightly. "He'll need your support. I shall see you both in the morning?"  
Lance looked up and nodded. "Yeah, you will, don't worry."  
He met her eyeline. "Thank you for staying with me."  
"It's okay, Lance." She offered a smile. "Someone needs to take care of the, um, _Space mom_ once in a while."

And with that, the Princess turned and left.

* * *

 

Lance only had to wait a couple of minutes after Allura left for the puff of ice-cold steam to announce the opening of the healing pod. In preparation, he had held his arms out, and Shiro fell forwards into them almost immediately, causing Lance to stagger backwards under the weight.  
"Shiro? You with me?" He asked tentatively, helping the older man regain his balance.  
Shiro groaned quietly, adjusting to the dimmed lights. "Lance?" He slurred, leaning on him once again.  
Lance pushed back, and began to walk him out of the Medbay. "Yeah, it's me Kashi, don't worry. We're gonna' go to bed now, yeah?"  
Shiro nodded lamely on Lance's shoulder, securing his arms around his waist. "Your room, please. Mine is," he trailed off, "clean."

Lance decided he'd rather not ask.

On that order, he turned the corridor, leading the disoriented Shiro down a corridor and into his blue-tinted room. Once they were inside, he helped Shiro lie down under the thin sheets, and once he was ready himself, he crawled behind the black paladin. It was a reassuring weight to finally have Shiro back, despite him barely being out for a day. He curled one hand around Shiro's waist, the other lying flat on his chest.  
"Kashi?"  
A hum from the larger man told him he was still awake.  
"Never do that again, yeah?"  
"Do what?" He rolled over to face Lance, who looked away guiltily.  
"You know, jump in front of a shot like that."  
Shiro leaned their foreheads together and put a hand to Lance's face. "They were going to hit you. I couldn't just watch. I couldn't, you were unprepared, I couldn't watch you take that hit, you'd-"  
Lance shushed him quietly when a wet spot appeared on the pillow. Shiro was crying. "I'll do better next time, I promise."  
"Takashi, please." Lance said with a soft voice. "You don't need to do any more, or you'll burn yourself out, and no one wants that." He laughed dryly. "Voltron needs its fearless leader, and we all know what happened when you let Keith take the wheel."  
Shiro averted his eyes, not laughing along. "I'm sorry."  
Lance frowned "Don't you dare be. You saved me, I should be the one saying sorry to you." Shapes were marked on Shiro's back by Lance's fingers, tracing scars old and new that caused Shiro to flinch slightly with each one. "You're amazing Takashi," he whispered. "You're the strongest person on this ship, and beautiful, and I'm never going to leave you, yeah?  
Suddenly Shiro pulled him into a large hug, drawing him close and holding him there as the sobs the wracked his body slowly died off. Lance could do little but return the embrace, running his hands in calming circles across Shiro's back and whispering reassurances.  
"You're my home, Blue. I, I can't lose you." Shiro admitted once his breathing evened out. Lance looked up, wide-eyed and surprised, before softening his face and pressing his lips to Shiro's jaw.  
"You won't lose me, like, ever. You're stuck with me now for the rest of eternity." He laughed gently, smile breaking out at Shiro's responding teary smile. "No more accidental heroics then?"  
"I can't promise, but I'll try." Shiro nodded shakily. "I'll ignore every hit you take from now on."  
"You know what I mean." Lance grumbled at Shiro's following weak laugh, burrowing closer once again into Shiro's embrace and planting his face in Shiro's chest. Shiro responded by running the Galra hand through Lance's hair; it was a sure fire way to calm the blue Paladin down, he had quickly learned, carding nimble fingers through brown tresses.  
"Kashi?"  
"Kitten?"  
"Are we," Lance hesitated, "couple-y?"  
"How do you mean?" Shiro sounded confused.  
"Hunk said we were like the Mom and dad of this team."  
Shiro thought for a moment. "At least it's us, I guess. It's nice having a family."  
Lance looked up. "Now, Keith said that."  
"We are a family, if you think about it. A space family." Lance had started drawing circles on his back again with his thumb, working through knotted muscles as they talked.  
"That makes Coran the weird uncle, y'know." Lance added with a snort, muffed from his position in Shiro's chest.  
"But that's _exactly_ what he is!"  
They laughed in unison, the noise light and refreshing to each other's ears, but was ended by Shiro stifling a yawn. Lance poked his side gently. "You should sleep. Now."  
Shiro hummed and relaxed into the pillow. "Alright. But Blue?"  
"Yeah?"  
"I love you."  
Lance sighed, a mixture of annoyance and affection. "Love you too."  
"And Blue?"  
"What."  
"It's nice to be home."  
A beat.  
"Go to sleep, you soppy asshole."

* * *

 

Hunk was confused.  
Lance _never_ locked his door. It was one of those habits he'd picked up since becoming a paladin, not locking doors incase he couldn't open them again.  
But this morning, Lance's bedroom door was most definitely locked, and no one was responding to calls to breakfast or Hunk's increased knocking. So Hunk had been forced to manually override the door.  
"Hey, Lance? What's the idea? You never lock your-" Hunk began, talking towards the curled up lump on the bed that he assumed was Lance, but was interrupted by a voice from the other side of the room.  
"Sorry Hunk, that was my fault."  
Hunk turned on the spot, yelping in surprise as the figure in the doorway of the attached bathroom, who turned out to be _Shiro?_  
He was leaning on the doorframe wearing only his thin undersuit, with an Altean toothbrush lazily hanging out of his mouth like nothing was odd about this scene.  
" _Shiro, what are you doing-"_ Hunk was cut off by the black paladin giving him a pointed glare then looking at the sleeping mound on the bed.  
"Oh, is he still asleep?"  
"Yep." Shiro replied plainly, popping the P.  
Hunk breathes deeply. "Okay, I'll try again." He sighed again before breaking out into a harsh whisper. "What are you doing here? Have you been here with Lance all night? Is this a regular occurrence? Are you okay? Where did you sleep-"  
Everything clicked into place as Shiro raised an eyebrow.  
Hunk slowly pointed at Lance. "So, you and him?"  
Shiro slowly nodded.  
"You're a thing?"  
The nodding continued.  
"Oh."

Once the realisation kicked in, Hunk grinned widely. "So when we said you two are like Space Mom and Dad, we weren't wrong?"  
Shiro chuckled, and a brown arm stretched up from the pile of blankets.  
"I'll get him up if you want." Shiro said, making his way over to the bed. Hunk grabbed his arm lightly. "Nah, it's not like we're doing anything important this morning. He could use the sleep."  
Shiro turned to face him. "Thank you Hunk." He said with a smile that Hunk returned.  
"It's okay man, don't worry! Oh, and Shiro?" Hunk turned to leave.  
"Hurt him, and I _will_ make it look like an accident."  
Shiro gave a lazy salute. "Aye aye, captain."

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry about this my dudes, it gets better from here on out, I promise


End file.
